Ceramist transforms clay into works about intimacy

Friday

Nov 8, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 10, 2013 at 10:22 AM

Ceramist Jim Bowling makes intensely personal work operate on a universal level. "Behavioral Patterns," his exhibit at Gallery 831, displays a progression from the abstract and stylized figure to the representational human form. In 10 large sculptures, he examines the physical and psychological space of intimacy.

“Behavioral Patterns,” his exhibit at Gallery 831, displays a progression from the abstract and stylized figure to the representational human form. In 10 large sculptures, he examines the physical and psychological space of intimacy.

Formally, the exhibition is characterized by fired clay with dazzling surface textures — each piece referring to the figure on a sliding scale from amorphous to representational. Conceptually, the work operates under a layer of intimacy; often, two figures make up one piece; and, in most pieces, an unexpectedly placed portrait emerges from the amorphous form.

The earliest work on display, Head to Head, and one of the most recent works, Re-center, act as capstones of the exhibit by marking the most abstract formulation of the figure and the most representational. Head to Head is composed of two forms, bicircular in shape, that seem to face each other. Re-center rests at the opposite end of the spectrum: a solitary man shown sitting in a vulnerable, almost-defeated position — head in hands and body covered with a tree-bark texture. The piece marks a shift in Bowling’s work as he allows it to take on a more introspective role.

His portrayal of psychological intimacy, along with his humorous and sometimes-whimsical approach to such serious topics, is exemplified in his stand-alone sculpture Mutual Attraction. Two large male figures face each other, as stylized torsos with legs and glitzy gold boots. Their faces, treated with a bit more seriousness, emerge from the torsos with their eyes locked. The space between the figures is charged.

Ride portrays two figures as they physically fit through one another, interlocked. The physical intimacy of their bodies contrasts with the distant gaze of their eyes, and the piece thus lacks the psychological intimacy of Mutual Attraction and other figure groups.

The exhibition asks viewers to confront their own relationships to intimacy and allows them to consider the space between two figures that can both be insurmountable and seem like nothing at all.

Bowling, a central Ohio artist and an art professor at Otterbein University in Westerville, is represented by the Sharon Weiss Gallery.